There are days when birding throws up something slightly unexpected, and then there are days when it throws up something so completely unexpected that you find yourself running across a nature reserve.
This was definitely the latter.
I'd been enjoying a pair of Garganey at Brandon, cracking little ducks in their own right and always a pleasure to see, when something caught my eye. Two black-and-white shapes were flying away from the East Marsh, off to my right. It was a brief, fleeting look but definitely the triggered the ol’ spidey senses!
A quick mental trawl through the possibilities. Avocet? Nope. So that just leaves… Black-winged stilt? Surely not?!
Beyond unlikely at Brandon, to put it mildly, but I was confident enough not to hang about. I literally ran round to the East Marsh track and the hide overlooking Teal Pool. There, to my considerable relief, was a small group of birders, all looking in the same direction and admiring two Black-winged Stilts.
What a bird. Or, in this case, what birds.
The elegant proportions are extraordinary, those impossibly long pink legs giving them an almost comical appearance, offset by the crisp black-and-white plumage. They looked entirely at home picking their way around the shallow margins of the pool, although their presence at Brandon was anything but ordinary.
It was my first Black-winged Stilt since seeing the famous ‘Sammy’ at Titchwell in the early 2000s, and a particularly satisfying addition to my Brandon list. In fact, this was a first for the reserve, and naturally for my own patch.
And the spring kept on giving
The Stilts were always going to be difficult to follow, but the subsequent visits to early summer visits to Brandon produced plenty to keep things interesting.
A return on 30 May produced 46 species, with Cuckoo still very much in evidence and a good selection of summer visitors. Lesser Whitethroat was a particularly welcome addition, alongside great views of two Garden Warblers, and Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler. There were also Redshanks and several Little Ringed Plover on the pools.
June brought more of the same, with the reserve continuing to hold a good variety of birds. My visit on the 16th was particularly productive, with 53 species recorded. Cuckoo was still present and calling around the site (one brief flight view over the golf course), and there were some good raptor sightings, including both Hobby (cracking views from the Carl Lewis Platform) and Red Kite. A Great White Egret was also on the list, along with another sighting of Garganey.
A further visit on the 21st produced 42 species. The summer warblers were still making themselves heard, while Grey Wagtail and a good selection of waterbirds added to the day's tally.
Looking back, it was a cracking few weeks at Brandon. The Black-winged Stilts were undoubtedly the headline act, but they were part of a much broader picture of spring migration, returning summer visitors and the gradual shift into summer.
